I frequently see questions from new player who ask which agent they should main or unlock.

This guide is supposed to cover that question, so it can be linked to whenever someone asks that question again.

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This guide will focus on basics of the agent and how easy it is to pick up an agent,( mostly skill floor but sometimes also ceiling). Since agents get updated somewhat frequently, the strength and meta relevancy are secondary.

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It includes a star rating(1=hard, 5=easy)

- mechanics(complex inputs, movement, aim-reliant)

- knowledge(stuff like lineups, setups or gamesense)

- teamwork(requires someone to cooperate)

as well as a short overview of the 4 classes.

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Of course feel free to share your insights and thoughts, so I may improve this guide.

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DUELIST

Duelists usually get the first contact with the enemy. Their utility might be weaker versions of other agents abilities, but is quick to use and versatile.

Abilities focus on creating space and take aggressive duels, by either

- flashing/stunning the enemy

- isolate 1v1 with smokes

- mobility to split attention away from the rest of your team

- healing/escapes to keep you alive for longer

Since you are the first person in, you need to relay information to your teammates. Call positions and where you ant to push. This helps your mates to follow you and don't run into the same trap like you did.

Lastly, don't be afraid of dying. If your team can enter the site with the chaos you create, it was worth it. Don't let the scoreboard fool you.

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Phoenix

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ****

teamwork - *****

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Jack-of-all-trades with a wall for cover, a molly to force enemies out of cover or stop aggression and a flash that flies in a curve a round a corner all by itself.

The fire can heal you up after a fight.

His Ult is literally an extra life. You get a short duration here you can die for free and respawn immediately where you activated it. Farming ult orbs is a viable strategy with phoenix.

His core weakness is his range, all abilities can only fly a short distance. Also while wall and molly cover 2 purposes, you can usually only use one: aggression or heal.

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Jett

mechanics - ***

knowledge - ***

teamwork - *****

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Jett relies on her wind to get het out of danger or quick into new aggressive spots. This requires quick reactions but a dash plus smoke can let you get in or out of near any situation. Use uncommon spots to suprise your opponents and dash back to safety after a kill.

Lastly her Ult: knifes can replace a weapon if you're low on money. While they are aim reliant, they are always perfect accurate, even while running or jumping.

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Reyna

mechanics - **

knowledge - *****

teamwork - *****

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Reyna's simplicity is her strength and weakness at the same time.

After killing an enemy, she can absorb the soul for healing or a short invincible escape.

This helps her to survive very long into the game, but requires you to get a kill in the first place. A Reyna without kills is a agent without abilities, she is purely selfish and there is nothing to learn to "master" that agent.

Her flashes can be casted through walls and won't blind teammates, but they can be shot down.

The ult is a buff that improves the heal/invincibility and buffs your firerate.

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Raze

mechanics - **

knowledge - ***

teamwork - *****

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Raze utilizes explosives to force enemies to move and blast herself through the air. While grenade, boombot and ult are near braindead to use, her satchels are what drives the potential of this agent to the moon.

Combining a jump plus both satchels can get you in almost any position and suprize enemies from above. They are a complete skill set on their own and require a lot of practice.

Also Raze is the nightmare of any trap-based sentinel like Killjoy.

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Yoru

mechanics - ****

knowledge - *

teamwork - ***

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Yoru is the king of false information. He can get anywhere anytime with a smart teleport or his ultimate, can create fake sounds for his abilities and place a decoy that flashes enemies when they shoot his copy. Even his flashes are invisible until they hit an object, covering their origin.

Yoru outplays the opponent and force them to respect all options you can have. But this required very good game knowledge and reading your enemies. Otherwise you will find yourself staring down a barrel after teleporting.

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Neon

mechanics - *

knowledge - ****

teamwork - ***

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Neon is one of the most mechanical challenging agents.

Her high gear makes her run faster and gives a slide to catch enemies off guard. However, she can't use a weapon during this so you rely on your dodging skills and your wall to survive( or teammates help, like flashes). Her stun projectile is fast and powerful, but the bounce mechanic makes it hard to use without stunning yourself or mates sometimes.

Her ult is an electric lazer that can be used mid running and replace a weapon if you need to save some money.

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Initiators

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Offensive supports with utility that is designed to help others win fights.

Most abilities cover two purposes:

- gather Information

- debuff enemies like stun or flashes

A well coordinated duo of a duelist and an initiator can take every fight they want.

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Sova

mechanics - ****

knowledge - **(**)

teamwork - ****

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High focus on revealing enemy positions.

Uses a chargeable bow and bouncing arrows to get recon arrows in and scan for enemies. The bow can be a bit overwhelming at first and the skill ceiling is near endless, but once you get a feeling for the geometry, you can do basic arrows that will get valuable information. Full charge, one bounce and your arrow is good to go. The drone can also help clearing complex areas and the shock darts can destroy traps and force people out of cover.

TL:DR easy to learn, hard to master.

Also my personal recommendation for new players.

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Breach

mechanics - *****

knowledge - ****

teamwork - *

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Zero information, but loaded with flashes, stuns and explosives.

His abilities are very oppressive and annoying to fight against. His Ult can stun everyone on a bombside.

While is utility is easy to use, it requires more coordination to pull of. Breach is too slow to use his abilities selfish.

If you have a buddy to play with, Breach might be your choice.

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Skye

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ***

teamwork - *

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Mix of info gathering and flash support. Summons various creatures to search and attack enemies. The bird can be awkward to use, but will flash enemies and makes a sound when seeing an enemy. The tiger can function as a moving camera to check angles and stun enemies. Skye can also heal allies, but not herself.

Her ult summons 3 seekers, that... well... seek enemies on their own. Free information.

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Kay/o

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ***

teamwork - ***

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Kay/o is best for players who played i.e. CS before.

Has a (currently) unique ability to suppress and deactivate all abilities in range,

but don't confuse this, their guns are fully functional. You get the info who you suppressed, but the actual position is still unknown.

All abilities(flash, molly, suppression) need to be thrown against or around walls to be used well. Lineups or a good feeling for the trajectory are required.

Ultimate suppresses in a stupidly large area, but the wave will give our position away.

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Fade

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ****

teamwork - ***

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Information focused like Sova, but has more entry capabilities in exchange for range.

Haunt can be thrown on top of buildings to scan for enemies and you need to get a bit creative because it dies in one hit. She casts various debuffs, including her marks(allows her prowlers to chase players without seeing them) and deafing.

Her ult marks, deafens and decays all enemies in a huge area.

Her only weaknesses is her limited range and easy destroyable utility.

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Gekko

mechanics - *****

knowledge - *****

teamwork - **

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Gekko uses his little buddies to entry for him, stun and flash players.

One can even plant and defuse the spike for him, but be careful because you could just throw away the objective.

His util is weak and destroyable, but multiple use cases and most buddies can be picked up again to get technically infinite charges. Including his ultimate.

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Controller

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Controller centralize around smokes to block vision. This sounds unimpressive, but is arguably the most important ability in a tactical shooter.

Smokes help you to avoid crossfires or sneak around. Or you create new crossfire options. Usually, you want to reduce the positions that someone can shoot you from. If you need to run through a smoke onto a bombsite, you are exposed to multiple angels at once when coming out of the smoke.

Smokes literally "control" the options a player has. They might not be flashy, but still very important to a teams success.

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Brimstone

mechanics - *****

knowledge - ****

teamwork - ****

Brim accells at rushing. He can place 3 smokes at once, they last longer than any other smoke and they deploy really fast with a few clicks on his map.

He can buff the team with his stim beacon to boost fire rate and run speed and the ult is satellite lazer that fries everyone who doesn't move instantly(again controlled with a simple map click).

Lastly a strong, long lasting molly to defend against pushes.

Brims weakness is his range. He can only place smokes in a restricted area around him, which can cause problems on larger maps. Also note that Brims smokes can NOT recharge, despite being a signature ability.

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Omen

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ***

teamwork - ****

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Omen is like a shadow, being able to teleport at close range or global with his ultimate. He can only place 2 smokes at once and they are fairly slow, but recharge over time, have long range and the enemy can't see where they come from.

A blinding projectile lets him fight aggressively if he has to, but be careful not to hit your team with its large hitbox.

Omen is a strong lurker, sneaking around the map and picking enemies apart that are not careful, without taking his ability to support his team with smokes.

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Viper

mechanics - ****

knowledge - **

teamwork - **

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Her smokes are toxin that will decay enemies over time, making her smokes even more dangerous for enemies to push through.

She has a wall and an orb that she has to place beforehand and activate them anytime for any duration. recharge gas, then reactivate them again.

Her ult creates a giant smoke around her, one of the most dangerous death traps in the game.

The setups require planing and knowledge. Her options are largely influenced by the map you play. Also with the orb and mollies being throwable items, lineups might be required for certain maps.

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Astra

mechanics - *****

knowledge - **

teamwork - **

Astra plays very different. She can place stars on the map and can then cast any ability on them. This can be a smoke, or a stun or a vortex to trap enemies.

She has limited stars but every ability itself is on cooldown, allowing for multiple uses. Stars can be picked up again, but end up on a cooldown as well, forcing her to plan ahead.

Her strength comes from her global presence. She can help everyone everywhere. They just need to call for you...

Her ult is a giant wall that stops sound and bullets(but no abilities). This is a double edged sword that can easily backfire or create the most insane outplay ever.

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Harbor

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ***

teamwork - ***

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While most controller have a smoke and other separate util, harbor has only smokes that come with a twist.

He is a rather offensive controller with a free curvable wall and his cascade that is the currently only moving smoke in the game and a orb that acts like a shield(breakable). His water slows down everyone briefly(currently including you).

His ult creates geyser under enemies that will stun them briefly. Additionally, the geyser go far up into the air, allowing you to spot enemies.

He needs to look around a lot to place his abilities correctly which can be counter productive with how close he needs to be to the action.

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Sentinels

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While other agents try to take and contest enemy territory, sentinels secure and defend the ground you already control. They can single handedly defend against a push or cover up flanks so the rest can go on aggressively.

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Sage

mechanics - ****

knowledge - ****

teamwork - ****

The best staller in the game. A solid wall and slow fields make it impossible to push for like 20 seconds straight, which is enough for your team to group up and pinch the enemies or get the spike up. She can also heal and her ult Resurrection is one of the best in the game. Her wall can be used to boost yourself to a higher elevation and reach places nobody else can.

She doesn't need to prepare like other sentinels, allowing for reaction to enemy actions.

Sage is largely recommended for beginner, but many fall into the trap of becoming a heal bot. You have a gun. Use it.

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Cypher

mechanics - *****

knowledge - *

teamwork - **

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Cypher utilizes trapwires and a camera to hold control over the map.

Sentinels normally need to be somewhat close to their traps or they deactivate. Cypher doesn't. He might not be able to get kills that way, but there is a large value to safely say, that half of the map is inaccessible for the enemy without you noticing.

With his global presence, he can go and lurk very effectively.

Careful players will destroy your traps, but the information is all you need to get the perfect timing to strike. Cypher has his own smokes that allow you to fire at revealed enemies without them able to shoot back.

You still need to adapt your setups. Catching enemies off guard is key to success for Cypher. Also you need a lot of awareness. An agent like Omen can bypass your wires or various boxes might allow others to jump over them. Looking up guides is highly recommended.

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Killjoy

mechanics - ****

knowledge - **

teamwork - *****

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Similar to Cypher, KJ uses traps to spot approaching enemies. However, her bots are not global and wont reveal anyone behind cover.

Her damage potential is super high, her turret slows down anyone it shoots at, the alarmbot gives "vulnerable"(double damage) and remote controlled mollies can make any corner a deathtrap.

Her ult is also one of the best in the game. Lockdown will detain anyone who doesn't leave its area of effect in time, making them a free kill. It can be destroyed, so its likely they push you or leave the area completely.

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Chamber

mechanics - **

knowledge - ****

teamwork - *****

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Basically a defensive duelist. Chamber uses a teleport to escape dangerous situations and his custom guns(headhunter=guardian;tour de force=operator) to hold an angle aggressive. They are also fast to equip and can help you in a pinch.

He only has one trap to catch flanks, but that one is rather powerful, creating a slow field around the detected enemy.

Chamber relies on him taking gunfights and contest area with his life. While the teleport and a free operator in form of his ult are helpful, a Chamber without aim won't get far.